Any iPhone with Ultra in the name will always be expensive, so it’s no surprise that the iPhone 15 Ultra is rumored to cost even more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
So claims LeaksApplePro – a leaker with a serious track record – for which he writes HowToiSolve (opens in a new tab), claimed the price of the iPhone 15 Ultra could start as low as $1,299. Pricing for other regions has not been announced, but Apple is currently selling the 512GB iPhone 14 Pro for this price, with it costing £1,429/$2,249 elsewhere, so those prices are likely to apply here as well.
By comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at $1,099 / £1,199 / AU$1,899, so that would add $200 / £230 / AU$350 to the starting price.
It may not be all that bad though, with a starting price as low as $1,199 (probably translating to £1,309 / AU$2,099) listed as the most optimistic possibility, but even that is significantly more than the price of the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at .
So how would Apple justify this price increase? According to LeaksApplePro, one of the reasons is simply inflation, but other than that, this phone could have a number of upgrades not seen in the rest of the iPhone 15 lineup, including a titanium bezel, a dual-lens selfie camera, and an initial storage capacity of 256GB.
All of this will reportedly lead to a production cost that would be around $90 more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Oddly enough, the source also claims that the iPhone 15 Ultra may only be offered in one color – the same silver shade as the Apple Watch Ultra. They claim that there may be other shades, but so far they have not seen any evidence of this.
To all of this we’d add the usual caveat – leaks should be taken with a grain of salt, especially so far from the iPhone 15’s likely September 2023 release date, but honestly we’d be surprised if something called the iPhone 15 Ultra didn’t cost more than any current models.
Analysis: not as much of a price increase as you might think
While the iPhone 15 Ultra sounds very expensive here, one detail is worth noting: it will apparently come with over 256GB of storage, which is double the initial 128GB capacity of the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Pick up the 256GB iPhone 14 Pro Max and the price goes up to $1199 / £1309 / AU$2099 which is the same as the lowest price of the iPhone 15 Ultra here and $100 / £120 / AU$150 less than the highest rating.
So, with comparable capacities, the iPhone 15 Ultra may actually cost no more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max; and if so, the increase may not be as large as it seems at first glance. Either way, it’s likely to be one of the most expensive non-foldable phones in 2023.